Far away from home

It has been a long-ass day. Today, I had a wake up call at 03:30 hours for my 06:00 flight to Phoenix, AZ. After collecting the rental car I drove 236 miles (roundtrip to Cottonwood, AZ and back to Sky Harbor Airport). The weather in Phoenix was very nice, although it has now been 112 record breaking days without a drop of water, and with no signs of rain in sight. The temperature was 10 degrees (80 F) above normal for this time of the year. Cubans that are thinking of relocating to the state of Arizona are warned that platanos and guayaba plants will not do well in this environment.

On the return to the airport something curious happened, something that only a Cuban-American can fully understand. I am particularly referring to Cuban-Americans that live in states where the population is sparse, not like Mayami that if you live there you are in the thicket of cubiches. Cruising along in the freeway in my rental car towards airport, I looked to my right lane and there is another car with a young driver in his mid-20s and in the passenger seat his girlfriend or wife, I don’t know. The first thing I noticed was as small Cuban flag hanging on the rearview mirror. He noticed that I was looking into his car, but I quickly pointed to my rearview mirror and then to myself…and immediately a spontaneous smile erupted on the faces of both occupants of the other vehicle. We waived a hello and continued to drive down on the freeway side by side in our respective lanes. This went on for a couple of miles, until finally they gave a broad smile, waived and exited the freeway.

All I kept thinking about was how far we both were from a place called home.